In The Shadows Of The Light – Elvira Groenendijk (1)

Only once did Valira hear a hawk, its lonely cry echoing through the stone. She wondered if anyone she knew—maybe her mother’s mother’s mother—had ever walked here before. Or was this group the very first of the elves to see this canyon? It made her feel both small and a little proud, all at the same time. As they continued, the canyon turned into a maze. Every corner was different. There were ferns that grew so thick and dark, it always seemed like evening underneath them.

Springs of clear, cold water bubbled out of tiny caves and filled small pools, and on the stones the moss looked softer than any pillow. The children pointed at birds, but the creatures sounded different here. There were none of the sweet songs Valira remembered; only quiet calls, as if the birds were warning each other to be careful and not give away their hiding places. The elves walked through the canyon until the sun was right above them. They sat down only once to drink and eat a little, and even then, most of them remained standing and kept watch.

It was as if the strangeness of this place had made them forget about being tired. Sidas and the other children found a group of lizards as bright as jewels, and they chased them across the rocks, laughing. One of the boys with golden hair said he would make the lizard his pet and teach it to ride on his shoulder. Meriel tried not to smile. But for a moment she did, and everyone saw it, even if she looked away right after.

Later, the canyon grew smaller and darker. Soon, the rocks on both sides touched each other above them, making a kind of stone tunnel. At the mouth of the tunnel, everyone stopped. Nobody wanted to go first. But Meriel said it was the only way. If they wanted to live, they had to go underground. So they lit their lanterns and, one by one, the elves stepped inside. At first, it was scary. When they left the sunlight, everything went black, and all they could see were the spots of light from the lanterns.

Valira held tight to Elise’s hand, and the other children pressed close to their parents. Their footsteps made echoes that bounced back to them, turning the sound of a few elves into what seemed like a whole army. After a while, the tunnel twisted and grew wider and bigger. Suddenly, they were in a room that seemed huge, too large for any house or even the market square back in Ollnahone.

They could not see the ceiling. But when the lanterns moved, the walls lit up with shining stones of blue and purple and sparkling white. Where the crystals caught the light, all of the colors danced across the walls.

Copyright © 2025 by Elvira Groenendijk All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise—without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations used in reviews or scholarly works. This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

For information, see: elvirawrites.com OceanofPDF.com Contents Author’s Note Prologue Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Chapter 15 Chapter 16 Chapter 17 Chapter 18 Chapter 19 Chapter 20 Chapter 21 Chapter 22 Acknowledgements OceanofPDF.com Author’s Note This book started when my own world came down when I was fourteen years old.

I didn’t know how. I didn’t know why. But somehow, there was a dark cloud inside my head that obstructed true joy and emotions. I isolated myself and felt like I was letting the people around me down. I didn’t know how to reach out. I didn’t know how to speak or what to say. All I could do was write. I discovered that I could write poetry and fantasy stories to give a voice to my subconscious and to the emotions I didn’t yet understand.

Writing also gave me purpose as I asked myself, “But what if life has something in store for me? What if writing is something I am meant to do? What if life isn’t decided yet? What if happiness and fulfillment can be found, and what if I am about to miss everything?” Writing became a way for me to cope with what was happening until I could move on. Though when I did move on, I stopped writing .

. . and eventually the story I had started disappeared. Or so I thought. I moved to Switzerland nine years after first starting this story. At that time, I felt like I had finally gotten away from everything. I was supposed to be fulfilled—yet a piece was still missing. Then something unexpected happened.

This is a short excerpt from the opening of “” by Unknown, quoted for review and introduction purposes. All rights belong to the copyright holders.

Book Information

• Unique ID: c9757ebd3da983e5
• File Extension: .pdf
• File Size: 3,799,702 bytes (3.624 MB)
• Title: –
• Author: Unknown
• Pages: 215
• Language: English (en)

Reading & Word Statistics

• Estimated Reading Time: 390.38 minutes
• Total Words: 78,076
• Total Characters: 423,443
• Average Words per Page: 363.14
• Average Characters per Page: 1969.5

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